NO MATTER what one may think about presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte, he has one advocacy worth supporting: ban firecrackers and celebrate the new year without injuries.
The Davao City mayor has banned firecrackers since 2001. He has cited this as the reason behind the city’s zero injuries from firecracker accidents. It is a feat he wants to repeat throughout the Philippines if he is elected president in 2016.
Christian, a Lapu-Lapu City resident, believes that a Duterte presidency is not required to push for a firecracker-free revelry. “Every citizen must see there are more beautiful alternatives to welcoming the birth of our savior or the coming of a new year,” he said.
Christian and his other young neighbors organize a street party for their elders on the eve of every new year. It’s not just a way for young professionals to give back to their parents and families but also a communal agreement not to set off firecrackers on the street and possibly leave unlit morning-after firecrackers that pose a danger to children and neighbors cleaning the streets after the holiday revelry.
Silent and safe
The Bankal youths’ decision to celebrate the passing of the old year with a capella singing or with guitar accompaniment also sends a clear message to firecracker manufacturers. “No, thank you. We’re not buying,” said Christian, who also observed that using their wallets to boycott these traditional holiday bestsellers may add “peso power” to their advocacy for a silent and safe holiday.
Their second year of spending a firecracker-free holiday meant convincing their families to turn their backs on the belief that auguring an auspicious year required firecrackers to create the loudest din. “Instead of expelling misfortune, firecrackers bring it on,” he said, citing different reasons why youths along their street supported the idea to ban firecrackers from their celebrations.
In past years, the setting off of firecrackers as early as mid-morning of Christmas and New Year eve was traumatic for family pets. Cats would disappear for days and dogs would whimper or refuse to leave the house, recalled Christian. The acrid, thick smoke lingering after the heavy fireworks affected the asthmatic and the elderly in the compound.
Worsening the situation was the easy access to fireworks sold on the streets of Lapu-Lapu, Especially Babag, home of Cebu’s local fireworks industry. Even the illegal ear-splitters, like the powerful and life-threatening “Goodbye, Bin Laden” and “Goodbye, Philippines,” one could get hold of with the proper connections.
People’s choice
Christian noted that the practice of welcoming a new year with the loudest bang also yields other risky behaviors. He remembers how his family discovered a stash of firecrackers during a house-cleaning. “No one remembers keeping the (paper grenades) in the cabinet. Imagine having this fire risk all the time.”
Because of the danger that children may discover firecrackers, play with these without adult supervision or even ingest some, such as the “watusi,” which is packaged like candies, firecrackers must be used immediately or better yet, avoided.
Even regular, legal firecrackers pose serious risks when these are handled in situations involving the excessive consumption of liquor. Firecracker-caused injuries involve many children left unsupervised at the height of holiday celebrations, as well as inebriated adults who mishandle firecrackers or throw lit ones at passing vehicles.
Competing with the neighbors to create the loudest noise or driven by alcohol consumption, some revelers also fire guns at midnight, an act of criminal impetuousness that has cost the lives of innocents and useless regrets.
The nationwide public campaign to avoid firecrackers gains strength, with Davao City cited yearly as the example showing it is possible to celebrate Christmas and New Year without regrets. With a million citizens, Davao has recorded no casualties from firecracker-caused accidents for the past 15 years.
Contrasting with the rising number of firecracker victims in other parts of the country, Davao’s clean slate is credited to the strict implementation of a city ordinance banning the sale, distribution and use of firecrackers. There is political will to punish offenders through fines of up to P5,000, imprisonment of several months, or both.
For the third year, Davao City will celebrate its Torotot Festival, which involves citizens blowing paper horns as a safe and inexpensive alternative noise-maker.